WINNERS: Club Champion All-Inclusive Fitting Boxes! Check Inside!

[GolfWRX_Official]

 

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Club Champion All-Inclusive Box giveaway! It was a great giveaway with a lot of entries! I know we are all excited to see what the winners were fit into! The winners of the boxes are...

 

Driver:

@japeru01

@RangerV

@Rfern12

 

Putter:

@toc

@bdawg983

@hTexas10

 

 

We also want to give a big THANK YOU to Club Champion for putting on this exciting giveaway!

 

[golfinbrad]

Congrats!!!!!  Great giveaway to win.

[Drumdog]

Congrats to the winners !!

[RangerV]

Pretty pumped for this one! I’ve always tested 4-5 shafts a year and guessed at which was best. It’ll be fun to see how bad those guesses were.

Currently -20* outside and the first available fitting is 5 weeks out, but I’ll post some updates on the trip and some on course results once we can get back outside.

Thank you GolfWRX and Club Champion! 

[bdawg983]

Thank you GolfWRX and Club Champion! I have my putter fitting setup for 2/21 and will report back

[tj7644]

Congrats to the lucky winners.   Nice opportunity

[j.b.newton]

It was rigged!  I demand a recount! - KIDDING! 

 

Congrats to the winners, Im just jealous!

[tbirds16]

Congrats to all the winners. Have fun.

[phil75070]

These Giveaways are great, and this could possibly have the most lasting effect on one's game. Congrats guys!

[toc]

Thanks to WRX and Club Champion, what an amazing experience!  I have no idea how this happened so quickly, but I've already had the fitting and received the putter.  I'll be updating this post when I finish writing everything up. 

 

Truly inexcusable that it has taken so long for me to write this review, but I hope people can still perhaps learn something about what @Club Champion has to offer from my experience.

 

Coincidentally, I was on the practice green at my club around 2:00 PM on Monday, January 3rd when my watch buzzed with an email notification from GolfWRX mentioning something about a putter.  I didn’t open the email at first, but when I did I was completely floored that I had won a fitting and a custom putter courtesy of Club Champion.  I’ve owned more than my fair share of putters over the years and even some customs, but immediately my thoughts began to swirl about exotic putters and shaft combinations, potentially from brands I’ve never tried.  I quickly filled out the required information and replied to the message feeling like a child who had just sent his letter off to Santa.

 

On Tuesday I was still brimming with excitement, but my natural skepticism started to take root.  I had been fit at Club Champion for wedges several years earlier and while the experience was pleasant and very informative, I didn’t like having to say no to the sales pitch and exorbitant price tag at the end.  I found myself worrying, albeit just a small amount, that I’d actually have to end up paying for some kind of customization or component that was not covered by this contest.

 

By the end of the week I had still heard nothing and my mind drifted to wild scenarios: it was a mistake and I actually had not been selected, or perhaps I was the victim of an elaborate catfishing scandal, WRX style.  Then, on Friday evening, I saw a foreign object on my car’s rear camera as I prepared to exit the garage.  Lo and behold, the FedEx man had decided to put a small box (slightly larger than a jewelry box) behind the tire of my car rather than by the front door.  Thankfully I did not flatten it because it turned out to be what I had been waiting for:  a package from Club Champion with a nice note, a divot tool, some tees, and (most importantly) a voucher for a free putter and fitting.

 

As my son promptly stole the divot tool and tees, I wasted no time in jumping on the Club Champion site to select a fitting appointment at my local store (Buford, GA).  Luckily, there were several convenient appointments for the very next day, Saturday, so I selected one and chuckled to myself at how quickly I had gone from feeling like a basketcase of nerves to now being mere hours away from the much anticipated fitting.  I decided to bring two putters to the fitting: the Ping 2021 Kushin 4 that I had recently been using, and a trusty Spider X that I have had for several years and go back to from time to time.  I knew I had a much more upright posture and delivery of the putter due to some changes within the previous year, but I was definitely not expecting the results the fitting provided.

 

When I arrived at the store my fitter, Matt, could not have been more friendly and welcoming.  I had not even a hint of the salesman-vibe I was dreading, instead he seemed super psyched that I had won a contest and got to enjoy this experience.  After calibrating the SAM and hitting some putts with my Kushin 4, Matt determined that I was very consistent with my tempo and stroke but that the club needed to be a great deal more upright, as much as 4-5 degrees.  He put my putter on the digital loft/lie machine and tried to bend it to the appropriate lie angle but, unsurprisingly, couldn’t get the Ping to budge more than a degree or degree and a half.  Even with this miniscule adjustment, though, I could immediately tell a difference, particularly with how the putter sat at address.  

 

We then went through different styles and brands of putters, with Matt asking for my feedback on each one.  If I didn’t like the way one looked at address, he took it away before I even hit a ball.  We determined that I liked a much more square-shaped putter as it helped me with alignment.  When I told him that I liked sort of a dense, muted thud at impact he narrowed the choices down even further.  Eventually we narrowed down to a Scotty (I forget the model but a wider blade with a flow neck) and a Mizuno (with the same shape and neck).  Matt bent both of the demo models to the appropriate lie angle and they simply looked perfect.  I honestly had never had putters sit so square and flat at address, they both inspired so much confidence.  

 

The difference came down to feel.  I loved the way the Mizuno felt, it had the perfect soft yet dense feeling like I was looking for, but the Scotty was a tad heavier in the head which I liked.  When I said this to Matt he told me he had the solution.  He changed the weights in the Mizuno (honestly I had not even noticed that it had interchangeable weights on the sole) and voila: the putter was perfect.  It sat absolutely square, the weight was ideal as I could feel the putter head throughout the stroke, and the feeling at impact was sublime.  The ball consistently rolled beautifully, end-over-end exactly at my target, no matter the length of the putt.  I mentioned to Matt that every putt is going precisely where I’m looking and he replied that’s how clubs are supposed to perform!

 

Now that we had selected the putter I felt the slightest bit uncomfortable, anticipating the hard sell on an upgraded shaft or some other type of exotic customization.  The voucher covered a specific dollar amount for the club so I was honestly half expecting to pay at least a small amount out of pocket.  To my surprise and delight, Matt did no such thing.  The stock grip on the putter is actually my favorite grip and the weight kit is included and he at no time tried to pressure me into any kind of upgrades.  In fact, I actually asked him about Stability shafts and LA Golf shafts and his opinion on them.  He even let me try a putter with a LA Golf shaft to see what I thought just for the heck of it.  

 

We placed the order and Matt told me I could expect the club in a few weeks.  Considering the putter and fitting were free I thought that was incredibly fast.  When I left he told me to stop back in if the putter needed an adjustment or if I needed anything else.  I really can’t do justice explaining what a fantastic experience this fitting was with Matt.  As I said, he could have easily tried to upsell me and didn’t, or he could have just completely (and perhaps understandably) mailed in the fitting since I wasn’t actually paying for it.  I felt like my fitting was Matt’s number one priority and that getting me dialed in with this putter was his absolute main focus for the day.  I was impressed with his knowledge, dedication, and warmth throughout the entire experience…which, as it turns out, wasn’t quite over.

 

 I was fit for the putter on Saturday, January 8.  By Monday, I received an email that the putter was already being assembled in Club Champions workshop.  I figured this was just a generic order confirmation email, but another message arrived on Thursday, the 13th, that the putter was being shipped to my local Club Champion.  To say I was stunned is an understatement, I was (pleasantly) flabbergasted by the speed at which this club was assembled and shipped.  By Monday, the 17th, I had it in play, the fastest I have ever received a custom club including when I lived minutes from the Ping factory.  A couple of weeks went by and I had the nagging feeling that the putter just wasn’t sitting quite as flat as it had during the fitting.  I emailed Matt about it and he encouraged me to come in as soon as I could so he could check it out.  The next day he watched me hit a couple putts and decided that it should be just a bit more upright.  He promptly bent it on the machine (thank you for the miraculous metallurgy Mizuno) and the putter was absolutely perfect just as it had been in the fitting.  

 

I can’t say enough how much I appreciate this opportunity, not just to experience an in-depth, professional level fitting, but also to receive a club that is top to bottom perfectly fit for my game.  I know Club Champion gets raked over the coals a bit here for the cost and seemingly unnecessary build techniques, but I saw absolutely none of these aspects through any of my interactions.  I will not hesitate to use Club Champion for any kind of fitting or club order in the future.  Whether it be at Club Champion or somewhere else, I urge anyone to get a proper SAM putter fitting.  The confidence I have standing over putts knowing that the tool I’m using is precisely tuned to do exactly what I want is otherworldly.

 

Thanks again to both WRX and Club Champion, and my deepest apologies for an unconscionably delayed review.

 

Edited May 28, 2023 by toc
I'm a bum

[postfold]

Truly an epic giveaway, congrats winners and thanks to WRX & CC!

[japeru01]

I have my fitting scheduled for 2/12, will update with a review + post with what I get. 

[hTexas10]

Truly an awesome prize. Thanks GolfWRX and Club Champion. My fitting is scheduled for 2/25, and I will report back after it is completed.

[jholz]

Cool prize. Nice win folks!

 

I look forward to hearing more about everyone's experiences. 

[toc]

bump for my review.